A US military judge has found Army private first class Bradley Manning “not guilty” of aiding the enemy. However, he was found guilty of 19 remaining charges, meaning that he still faces the possibility of over 100 years behind bars. READ MORE: http://on.rt.com/e7o41i

Journalist Kevin Gosztola of firedoglake.com explains today’s verdict in the Bradley Manning case along with his thoughts on the trial. Gosztola talks about the chilling effect that this trial will have on future ‘would-be’ whistleblowers in government and military as well as public opinion to Bradley Manning and other whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden.

A US military judge has found Army private Bradley Manning “not guilty” of aiding the enemy. However, he was found guilty of 19 remaining charges, meaning that he still faces the possibility of up to 136 years behind bars. RT talks to Wikileaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson on the verdict and its outcome.

http://www.democracynow.org – U.S. Army whistleblower Bradley Manning was found guilty today of 20 charges in total, including espionage, but he was acquitted of aiding the enemy, the most serious charge. Michael Ratner, an attorney for WikiLeaks, appeared on the Democracy Now! special broadcast to respond to today’s verdict.

“For him facing 136 years in jail for telling the American people what our government should have been telling us — about torture centers in Iraq, 20,000 extra civilians killed in Iraq — I find outrageous,” Ratner says. “He shouldn’t be put on trial. He is a whistleblower. The people that should be put on trial are the people who actually did those human rights violations.”

The guilty verdict in the case of Private first class Bradley Manning raises a lot of questions regarding whistleblowers in the US. The Obama administration has become notorious for pursuing whistleblowers using the Espionage Act of 1917, but what does this mean for current and future whistleblowers? Retired Col. Morris David and law professor at Howard University weighs in on the verdict.

The stain on its escutcheon is now so indelible the discredited elements of the US will never recover from this cumulative, forensically documented iniquitous history of the abuses of power. America is a tyranny, an open society cannot suffer tyrants nor condone their lies. The Cold War has produced devils, monstrosities, catalogues of atrocity, unregulated excesses beyond even the most generous allowances for error.

The perfect irony arising from this travesty of “divine justice” is that Bradley Manning is a better man than Barack Obama, a far more honorable man and a braver man. Courage does not resort to the false comforts of guaranteed self-assurance.

The intelligent world will judge the United States and condemn it henceforth; its day has passed, the eclipse of its credibility is total, American political morality reeks of corruption. The fish rots from its head.

This is a very adequate summary from Amnesty. Thanks to Lo for posting the link.

Any sane person must conclude that the jackboot is entirely on the other foot. It is the US Executive Branch(es,) the Pentagon Trunk and Corporate Bankster Root of this entirely spurious and fake tree of state that must be surgically excised from the international landscape. Its strangled roots are rotten, the trunk is a paralytic husk of ostentatious irrelevance, and the branches toxic with synthetic vanity; as for the perpetually waving leaves ~ they rustle interminable media deceit.

The dupes and clones who admire this one tree propaganda forest need to share what few brain cells they can muster among themselves and get real. How can we ever expect intelligent change in America so long as a belligerent majority remain stubbornly ignorant, utterly mesmerized by their own prejudices, & consumed by a voracious conditioned appetite for delusion?

Operation: #OneMoreVote

The FCC voted to repeal net neutrality, letting internet providers like Verizon and Comcast impose new fees, throttle bandwidth, and censor online content. But we can stop them by using the Congressional Review Act (CRA). We need one more vote to win in the Senate, and we’re launching an Internet-wide push to get it.

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The Golden Rule

“That which is hateful to you do not do to another ... the rest (of the Torah) is all commentary, now go study.” - Rabbi Hillel

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

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